Category Archives: Broadway

Post navigation

Openly gay singer-actor John Barrowman’s new song, “What About Love” is really terrific. What’s even more terrific is the music video which cuts away from the handsome Barrowman singing to show split-screens of a gay couple and a straight couple acting out their romance.

I’m gonna go on Amazon.com and order this today cuz I cannot wait for Christmas!

Sony BMG Masterworks ryoday eleases “Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far,” a comprehensive four CDtgreatest Broadway composer-lyricist of his generation. He wrote the lyrics for “West Side Story,” “Gypsy” and both music and lyrics for “Company,” “Follies,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods” and “Passion.”

Yeah, Elizabeth Taylor and Sharon Stone headlined last night’s Macys Passport Gala to raise money for HIV/AIDS but since they didn’t do interviews, I was most excited about meeting Nick Adams, the Broadway actor who just finished a year of co-starring in “A Chorus Line” – part of which time featured Mario Lopez as the lead.

“It was the year of my life but my body needed a break from it I guess,” Nick said. “I miss the show though, I miss the people. It was an incredible year and I miss hanging out with Mario Lopez too.”

The very muscular Nick gained a degree of fame last spring when the also muscular Mario joined the cast. Nick, who played his assistant, was put in a sweatshirt after the TV star’s arrival. But the New York-based actor said there never were any hard feelings despite reports of a rivalry.

“I spoke to him last week and we’re going to try and get together while I’m out here (in Los Angeles) this week,” he said. “We used to work out three times a week together. The press said we were emenies. They did make some modifications to the show when he joined “A Chorus Line.” It did change for me but he never gave me any negative energy and we became fast friends. He’s an incredible guy, very easy to work with.”

Perhaps because of the hoopla surrounding “bicepgate,” Nick landed a high-profile 2xist underwear modeling gig that was said to have originally been meant for Mario. Nick walked the runway in it at the Macys event revealing for all his well-sculpted body.

“I try to work out every day for about two hours,” he said. “Variety is what I think yields the best results so I try to mix it up and try to watch my diet – high protein, low carbs.”

Nick has a role in the upcoming film “An Englishman in New York” with John Hurt,Cynthia Nixon and Swoosie Kurtz, among others. It is set for a December release.

“I play a slightly dim, attractive young man at a rooftop party and IU get left alone with John Hurt. I sort of insult him and embarrass myself at the same time and sort of lets me know that the reality of a gay man in New York City is a little bit different now than it was when he was young.”

I wondered how Nick is handling all the attention that’s come his way this year. He’s got more than 2,000 Facebook friends now – of which I am one!

“This year has been an interesting year for me, raised my profile a little bit and it’s exciting because I’ve been exposed to a lot of people who might not have necessarily known who I was before. It’s nice to feel a lot of support. It’s been great. I haven’t let it go to my head or anything. I’m still the same Nick from a small town.”

It’s a damned special day when you get to chat with a bonafide Broadway legend like Elaine Stritch.

Knock me over with a feather.

She was in town for the Creative Arts Emmys on Saturday where she was trying to win the outstanding guest actress in a comedy series award for the second year running for her role as Alec Baldwin’s mother on NBC’s “30 Rock.”

Kathryn Joosten won for “Desperate Housewives” so Miss Stritch would have to be content with her current tally of three Emmy wins – for now anyway.

She told me before the ceremony that she is having a heck of a time working with Baldwin.

“I love him, I just love him,” she said in her brassy, rough voice. “I don’t think I’d do it if it weren’t for Alec. I just love him. First of all, he’s a giant actor. He really can act. He knows his way around the acting profession – bigtime. So I love that. I get a chance to play comedy with him because he’s so good at that. It just makes you want to do a dramatic part with him because he’s so good at that. He’s really my kind of performer.”

Her long career in films, television and especially on the New York and London stage was recalled – warts and all – in her Tony Award winning one-woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” which ran on Broadway and was made into an HBO documentary that won several Emmys.

She reprised the show ealier this year.

“We’ve just toured, we just got back from London where they asked us to do that show that you liked so much,” she said. “Then we went to Austin, Texas, have you been there? It’s very culturally hip.”

And so is she.

“The thing I feel so good about is I get a lot of young people who come to see my show on tour and in London. People who I call youngsters that are between 20 and 35. I think that’s a great compliment to me. I love kids, I love playing to young audiences – and old, my God! Any audience will do for me.”

Online extras:Stritch on parody of her on Logo’s “The Big Gay Sketch Show”
“She’s good, isn’t she? And they’re nice people. They really are nice folks on that. I don’t care about stuff like that, that’s great. Imitation is truly the greatest form of flattery.”

Stritch on Sarah Palin:
“I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley I’ll tell you that. She scares me to death.”

Videos:
This is stunning. It’s Elaine Stritch trying to record the classi “Ladies Who Lunch” during an all-night session for the soundtrack of “Company.” She struggles mightily to get it right and can’t. Watch the whole thing and see what happens:

And this clip is an absolute hoot! Elaine won her second Emmy Award for the HBO Special “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” in 2004 (she won her third Emmy last year) and her speech that year is an all-time Emmy classic: